Lisa Hering, 41, was killed by her husband, David Lee Hering, 43, with a shotgun on August 6, 2003, in a field at their 275-acre farm. David then shot and held off local law enforcement officers during a three-hour armed standoff before being wounded in the leg and captured.

Amber Hering, the couple’s 12-year-old daughter, knew something was wrong when her father returned to their farm alone, minutes after driving off in his pickup truck with her mother and a loaded gun. At trial, Amber said that she and her siblings had watched their parents drive off into a pasture on their farm. She said she grew worried and suspicious when her father returned on foot about 15 minutes later, carrying a shotgun and denying that he knew where their mother was. “I told him he was lying,” Amber testified.

Under questioning by defense attorneys, David and Lisa’s four children said their parents rarely argued and seemed happy. But each recalled moments when their father’s behavior seemed out of the ordinary. Dustin, 11, said his father habitually stayed up nights, patrolling the farm for intruders or troublemakers while armed. “He thought people were at our farm messing with us,” Dustin said.

The night before his mother’s death, Dustin said, his father had awakened the family with a blast from his shotgun, telling everyone he had shot at a coyote. He then had them get out of bed and join him in his pickup so he could patrol the farm for the predator.

Earlier in the week, Larry Lyman, a longtime family friend, testified that David had grown increasingly worried that relatives and police were scheming to take his farm. He said that they had burned a pile of computers, appliances and empty propane tanks, believing the items were bugged.

Testimony at trial featured all four Hering children and two family friends who were visiting the farm – Tara Anderson, 12, and her brother Cody, 10. Each told similar accounts of a day that began with swimming, watching movies and eating a picnic lunch in the woods of a neighboring farm. But they also told slightly varied accounts of the minutes before the shooting. Autumn testified that her father was carrying a gun as he and Lisa got into the truck. Her twin brother, Dustin, said he saw his father load the weapon with two shells and return from the pasture with the gun unloaded. All four children said Lisa seemed sad or teary as she and her husband drove away. Autumn recounted her mother’s final words: “We’re just going to check on the cattle. I love you. I’ll be right back.”

Amber said she told her older sister, 14-year-old Amy, to search the pasture for their mother after their father returned. Amy and Tara went out to the pasture and split up. Tara found Lisa’s body. Amy called 911 on a cell phone.

Law enforcement responded to a 911 call at the farm at 1151 Verde Avenue. Minutes after they arrived, a shootout ensued. David, wounded in the leg, was subdued inside his home by several officers using pepper spray.

David’s defense team made it clear that they did not dispute police accounts that he drove his wife to the pasture, shot her once in the back and then again, moments later, in the back of the skull as she was crawling away. Instead, defense attorney David Treimer said that David was insane at the time. In the weeks before the shooting, David had grown paranoid, repeatedly acted out of character and on the day of the shooting, was unaware of the nature and consequences of his actions.

A 20-minute video tape filmed by detectives 36 hours after the shooting revealed a farm and house in disrepair and disarray. The video showed several farm building doors swinging by a single hinge, torn fences and gates, and tractors and vehicles in various states of disrepair. The first officer on scene said that, “Things were rather chaotic. The children were running around all over.” Moments later, that officer said he saw David walking toward the house with a long gun in his possession. The officer said that David did not respond to efforts to get his attention and instead, walked to the farrowing barn where he allegedly fired the first shot at officers.